The annual InterAction forum kicked off today with leaders from international NGOs, governments, philanthropy and civil society gathering in Washington DC for a three day event on the most pressing issues in international development and humanitarian aid. We’re going to be there and are looking forward to connect with attendees over open data, data visualization and most importantly — mapping.

The role of GIS for more efficient and accountable relief and development work is steadily raising its profile. InterAction has recognized this fact by installing a GIS working group in June 2011 and this year’s forum will bring a promising workshop on Maximizing GIS Mapping in Monitoring and Evaluation. Two further GIS related events come in the same week as the InterAction Forum, both of them stand to benefit from the number of international development folks in town. On Wednesday night the Geo DC meetup on Crisis mapping will bring lightning talks by leading members of the crisis mapping and OpenStreetMap community. On Thursday afternoon the World Bank’s GFDRR and InterAction convene for a GIS deep-dive with an afternoon on New Tools in Mapping for Disasters and Development.

This level of activity is testimony to the increased interest around mapping and we are excited to be able to contribute with our MapBox open source tools. Find us at the InterAction forum at our exhibitor booth or simply tweet at us, our handles are @ericg and @djindc.

If you couldn’t make it to Washington DC, you can follow the Twitter discussion at the forum with the hashtag #iaforum.